Nutrition support for hyperthyroid

Most canned cat foods at the high end seem to include salmon oil which is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids, but it seems like it wouldn't be advisable for a cat with hyperthyroid.  Also avoiding seaweed stuff which includes kelp and carrageenan right? But I've only found one non vet expert article on the avoidance of salmon oil.

It may ultimately not matter but my cat Etta has a very high blood reading for thyroid (10.5) and she has other issues going on that may be far more serious. Until that gets some sort of prognosis (tomorrow) I was looking at nutritional support. She's starting on the thyroid medication now and while the pilling isn't easy, she seems to be tolerating the medication. She also has severe fluid retention in her abdomen for which she is getting a diuretic and the vet internist tomorrow might have more answers on what is causing that.

Right now it seems okay to give her what she will eat. She's my most reliable for eating the "good stuff" for canned food but almost all of it supplements with salmon oil, whitefish is a sneaky ingredient in foods that say "rabbit" for instance and kelp seems a popular ingredient too. It really is annoying that so many foods supplement with stupid fish but of course fish isn't in the front label and may be 3rd on the ingredient list.  I will note that the Friskies Canned that everyone loves to poo poo that I give to the strays has neither kelp or salmon oil and I've not seen soy either on the pates.

Prepared raw also has kelp and salmon oil too plus I'm not sure what's all up with her and I'm not going to feed her homemade raw at the moment since there was white cells in the abdominal fluid indicating some sort of infection (she got an antibiotic shot).

The various helpful lists of food (gotta find that again) are assembled for different reasons. Just checking on what others feed their cats with the high thyroid. I'm not ever going with the Y/D stuff.

Sorry no one has responded to your post yet.  I don't remember reading anything specific to feed cats with hyperthyroidism, UNLESS they are on the special food that is used instead of medication.  With that food, you can't give them anything else, not even any treats.  But that's not the case for you.

I do know you need to watch her iodine intake, and know that fish can be higher in that, but not sure about actual salmon oil.  Did you ask your Vet about that? 

If you don't get any responses here in Nutrition, you might try asking in Health, since it's kind of a fine line, and many owners of hyperthyroid cats might actually be more prone to be looking in that Forum.

The internal medicine vet today just said feed her a variety of cat foods to make sure she eats. I will definitely steer away from the fish varieties (which aren't her favorite anyway) but I was concerned about the salmon oil and the kelp and the sneaky fish that is in some high end brands. Nature's Variety has a brand called Pride. It has whitefish in the rabbit variety for example which is super annoying.


She's got some other issues going on too both related to the hyperthyroidism and potentially cancer (won't find out probably until Monday).

My Fluff was hyperthyroid (cured with i-131 about 5 months ago) but hyperthyroid cats require the same high protein diet as any other cat. I wouldn't really be worried about salmon oil, omega's are important and necessary. My Fluff eats raw I make as well as some freeze dried raw and some ziwipeak. 

I offered some of the freeze dried raw a while back and she didn't go for it. I have one cat that eats it, although he is easily bored and gets picky about it. I might try it again. With the warm water, that might be pleasing.

She's on an appetite stimulator. Gave her the first dose last night. She's back and forth taking nibbles out of her dish, and the others' dishes.  She had ascites until the internist drained a huge amount of it. She definitely feels better but is so thin. He's got her on Atenolol and the thyroid medicine (first week dose still).  Probably cancer.  So it might be ridiculous to worry about the fish at this point--just worried it will exacerbate potential swelling again. 

Irony since this cat was quite chubby up until last year. When I try to find food that sparks her interest, the other cats are prowling her dish for the extra yummy food. She did graze several times last night so I'm hoping she's getting more food than she was recently.